November 15, 1999(updated Nov. 16, 1999)

EGYPTAIR
990 AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DENIAL

The
response of U.S. government officials to the downing
of EgyptAir flight 990 near Nantucket was bizarre,
to say the least: ""There's no indication
of a crime but if it turns out to be," said an
FBI spokesman, "we'll solve it and bring those
responsible to the bar of justice." No
indication of a crime? A plane with 30 U.S.-trained
Egyptian military personnel, including three high-ranking
officers, takes off from Kennedy Airport on October
31  a few days after the UN announces economic
sanctions against the Taliban government of Afghanistan,
and
Islamic radicals associated with Osama bin Laden issue
terrorist threats. The plane reaches cruising
altitude somewhere near Nantucket, Massachusetts,
with no technical glitches  and then suddenly
the engines are shut down, the autopilot disengages,
and the plane goes into a straight-down nosedive.
Then it starts to ascend again, as if there had been
a struggle for control in the cockpit, with the good
guys gaining the upper hand. But only temporarily:
according to the data decoded from the recovered black
box, the plane took another abrupt turn downward;
this time, it did not turn back. All 217 passengers
were killed. While headlines about the crash dominated
the news for days afterward, buried in the back pages
was a very likely cause of the front page disaster:
it was reported that thousands
of Muslims in southern Afghanistan demonstrated against
the sanctions. Less than a week later, the US
embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attacked by Taliban-inspired
Muslim radicals. Earth
to US government: Hel-lo.

TARGET
OF CHOICE

But
it's no use: these guys just do not want to admit the depressing
fact that terrorism is the most likely scenario. For then
the American people would begin to ask: why? After billions
in foreign aid, "humanitarian" assistance, economic
aid, medical aid, and every other kind of aid extended to
the peoples of the world, and especially in the Middle East,
why has the United States become the target of choice?
They might even begin to ask uncomfortable questions about
US foreign policy, such as: why are we meddling in affairs
that are absolutely none of our business, such as getting
dragged into brokering the volatile Israeli-Arab "peace
process"? Why are we imposing crippling economic
sanctions on yet another Middle Eastern country  haven't
we killed enough people in nearby Iraq? (The total is now
at 1.5 million, primarily the elderly and children.)

IN
DENIAL

Instead
of risking
the possibility of an authentic foreign policy debate, the
strategy of this administration is to deny everything. Rather
than handing the matter over to the FBI, jurisdiction over
the investigation was given to the National Transportation
and Safety Board (NTSB)  an administrative sleight-of-hand
that ignored both the facts and the context in which they
occurred. The
whole "spin" of the investigation was exemplified
by the comments of one law enforcement official, who said:

"We
are looking at the entire crew ... looking at the passengers
... all aspects of what could be involved in this. That includes
financial problems and personal situations of those on board.
There
is not a single thing to indicate a blast or criminal activity.
We are looking at various scenarios involving people in the
cockpit."

BLAMING
THE VICTIMS?

Isn't
it a little tacky to immediately start blaming the victims?
It is nothing short of bizarre to focus on whatever "financial
problems and personal situations" those on board may
have had, especially in the context of international events,
as related above. Are we now to be subjected to endless stories
about the failed marriages, bankruptcies, and sordid affairs
of the deceased? Naturally, this administration would think
nothing of putting grieving families through endless torture
while studiously avoiding any use of the word "terrorism."
But they may not be able to avoid it much longer.

WITHOUT
A CLUE

The
voice recorder was recovered shortly after the black box was
found: the latter revealed that the engines had been shut
off, and the autopilot had been disengaged. As one veteran
pilot put it in an Associated Press report: "Someone
on that airplane was trying to make that airplane crash and
they succeeded." One persistent rumor is that the pilot
may have committed suicide, but
his family is already denying this:
Prior to the flight, his wife reports that he was "jolly,
as usual." This is a man intent on suicide? As the pilot's
brother argued: "He was not alone in that cockpit. Would
the others have just watched as he committed suicide?"
With the voice recordings, recovered late Saturday night,
presumably available by the time you read this, the issue
of what happened in that cockpit could well be settled. As
I put this column to bed, Matt
Drudge is reporting that government officials "now
suspect criminal activity in flight #990" and that the
"FBI [is] set to move in." Apparently, a top level
White House meeting has been called "after new data yields
clues." That this administration hasn't got a clue has
long been apparent. This cluelessness was underscored by the
news, a few hours after the initial reports, that the NTSB
is now denying that the recordings provide any conclusive
evidence of criminal activity, including terrorist activity.
There was no sign of a fight among the crew, but also, so
they say, no evidence of anything other than some unspecified
"problem" which seems to escalate in the moments before the
tape ends. Of course, this could easily point to a terrorist
attack  but the administration is still shying away
from the "t"-word.

REIGN
OF TERROR

Whatever
the outcome, the reign of terror that we all live under is
certain to continue  with the cloud of terrorism hanging
over us at every airport, over every train wreck and airplane
disaster, darkening our lives. When it was discovered that
birds in the New York area were carrying an exotic bug known
to occur naturally only in the upper Nile valley, and dozens
were felled by a mysterious ailment, the rumor that it was
a terrorist attack did not seem at all unreasonable. No possible
route of entry into this country was ever established, nor
was the matter pursued much further, at least publicly.

TWA
FLIGHT 800  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

And
questions still haunt us about the mysterious downing of TWA
flight 800. As
Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid point out, the government's
official line that it was an accident is predicated on the
theory that the fuel tanks exploded. But, they point out,
this is just a theory, and one missing a key ingredient: the
"government's forty-million-dollar probe of the TWA crash
has failed to find an ignition source that could have caused
the fuel tank to explode." Oh, but this is a "conspiracy
theory," and therefore outside the realm of rational
discussion: the government has already issued its official
report, and that is that. The issue is settled for
all time, and it's time to move on to the next mysterious
aerial disaster. As the Mad Hatter said to Alice: "Curiouser
and curiouser!"

OIL,
TERRORISM, AND THE CAUCASIAN CONNECTION

In
the name of the fight against "terrorism," the U.S.
launched a terrorist attack of its own against a pharmaceutical
factory in the Sudan; it was later proved that the target
had nothing to do with terrorism. This was acknowledged even
by lower level administration officials, who leaked a story
to the New York Times that merely confirmed the obvious:
the Sudan bombing was a wanton act of destruction, perhaps
a diversion away from Monica-gate, or, even worse, an act
of pure muscle-flexing intimidation. Now, once again, the
US is embarked on a similar mission, with a similar pretext:
capturing Osama bin Laden. Afghanistan, a hotbed of pan-Islamic
radicalism, has been targeted by the UN, and the US is determined
to move into the area in a big way. With the signing of a
pact binding Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia to facilitate
the building of an oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, and Clinton's
triumphal tour of the region, the geostrategic meaning of
the crusade against the Taliban is readily apparent 
especially to the Russian general staff. The scramble to control
the source of much of the earth's future oil supply is on,
and no one believes that guff about Osama bin Laden.

AFGHAN
FRANKENSTEIN

If
only the US had held on to Osama once they had him,
as they did during the Afghan war against the Soviets. Back
then, Osama and his Islamic Jihaders were our friends,
not our enemies: instead of hunting them down, we were arming
and training them. Osama's sudden rise to the top of the terror
charts is the Frankenstein story reenacted in the foreign
policy realm  a tragedy, rooted in hubris, that ends
in death.

WHAT
ABOUT EGYPT?

The
Islamic Brotherhood and other radical groups, ruthlessly suppressed
by the Egyptian government, are implacable foes of unelected
Egyptian "President" Hosni Mubarak, who maintains
his iron rule with the help of billions of dollars per year
in US military and economic aid. No one would be very surprised
to discover that Egypt's Islamic underground is behind this
incident. The Egyptian government is second only to Israel
when it comes to enjoying the benefits of US largess; yet
the Mubarak regime has declared war on large portions of the
Egyptian citizenry, including not only Muslims but also the
Christian Copts, one of the most ancient branches of Christianity.
While everybody talks about aid to Israel, which is rightly
scrutinized as it come up each year before Congress, how come
we never hear about the billions we throw at Egypt?

THE
TALE OF KING CANUTE

Naturally,
the people of Egypt never see a dime of this loot. It is all,
inevitably, siphoned off to the Egyptian elites, whose job
it is to enforce Washington's will in the region. The response
of ordinary Egyptians is not hard to fathom: as their oppressors
grow fat feeding at the US trough, the people are radicalized
and Islamic groups rapidly gain mass influence. Osama bin
Laden is a terrorist: in the Arab "street," however,
he is a hero, the symbol of resistance to arrogant Western
infidels intent on plundering the Middle East and polluting
traditional culture. In the era of nationalism and civilizational
conflict, we have taken up a struggle which we have no hope
of winning: it is like the advisors to old King Canute, who
thought their ruler could command the tides not to come in.
They were quickly disabused of this notion, and so will the
rulers of the US be if they continue on their mad course.

A
SAD ENDING

If
terrorism can be likened, at least in the case of Osama bin
Laden and his ilk, to a Frankenstein monster, then we all
remember how that story ended  with the death not only
of the monster, but also of its creator.

TERRORISM:
THE PRICE OF EMPIRE

If
the downing of EgyptAir flight 990 turns out to be a terrorist
act, it won't be long before the cry for revenge will go up.
The impulse to strike out, however strong, must be resisted,
for it will merely create the conditions for a perpetual terrorist
war waged against the American people. With the threat of
terrorism looming over us, Americans will begin to learn the
high price of empire. My guess, and my hope, is that they
will not be willing to pay such a high toll, at least not
for long. Will we become prisoners in the heartland of the
World's Sole Superpower? Forced to live in constant anxiety
 did you hear about that big accident? Gee, I wonder
if it was an accident?!  Americans will begin
to ask questions. Is it really worth it to control the Middle
East, in order to protect the Rockefeller oil empire: do we
really want to live, indefinitely, in the shadow of death?
What are the principles that inform US policy?

THE
TERRORIST EPICENTER

These
questions will lead to others, which will lead directly to
 Antiwar.com. Not that we have all the answers. What
we do have, however, is a good deal of the information
that can lead you to your own answers. Whatever the ultimate
answer to the growing problem of terrorism, it must be preceded
by the following realization: the American people cannot and
will not live in terror just so our rulers can flaunt their
arrogance on a global scale. If the downing of EgyptAir flight
990 is an act of terrorism, there ought to be hell to pay
 not in Afghanistan, but right here in the good old
USA. For as the war in Kosovo and the martyrdom of Iraq have
made all too clear, the world capital of terrorism is not
the mountain fastness of Osama bin Laden, but the imperial
city of Washington D.C.

HEDGING
THEIR BETS

The
feds reversed their position in less than 24 hours, with Jim
Hall, the head of the NTSB, at first hinting and then announcing
that he would be handing over the matter to the FBI. By way
of explaining the long period of hedging and delay, Hall complained
that the tape is ''almost entirely in a foreign language.''
Duh! What language would anyone expect the employees
of EgyptAir to speak  Etruscan? This one may get the
Lame Excuse of the Month Award, if not for the whole year:
not since the CIA blamed the lack of up-to-date maps
for the bombing of Belgrade's Chinese embassy has a government
agency lied so openly and blatantly.

A
WAR IN THE WORKS?

The
idea that the federal government lacks translators to review
the voice recording is laughable  for those whose sense
of humor is definitely on the mordant side. You can be sure
that the feds know what is on that recording, and are
even now deciding how and when to tell the rest of us. More
ominously, they are deciding what action to take in response
to what is clearly a terrorist attack. Don't be surprised
to see a sudden US military strike against the forces of Osama
bin Laden  or individuals and groups described as such
 and possibly a full-scale assault on Afghanistan. Stayed
logged on to Antiwar.com for fast-breaking developments. And
fasten your seatbelts  we're in for a bumpy ride.

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